Alice in Wonderland: A Dramatic Rendering of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass'

This is a play that was actually produced in 1915.

The play opens with Charles Dodgson at Alice's house and he's playing chess. She refers to him as 'uncle.' Dodgson is playing chess against himself. Then he mentions that some day he should write a book about Alice. Alice falls to sleep and Dodgson turns off the light and leaves the room.

The Red and White Queens call Alice through the looking glass to come over to their side. Then there's some almost unaltered scenes from Through the Looking Glass that take place. Then the scene shifts to the doors scenes from Alice in Wonderland. After that is the scene with Humpty Dumpty. Then there's the Pool of Tears scene, slightly altered.

The Gryphon appears and saves Alice and takes her to where the Mock Turtle is. The White Rabbit later appears to be coming there and so the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle pick up Alice and take her to the tea party scene.

Then it's a pretty standard tea party scene from the first book. This leads directly into the scene at the house of the Duchess. There are some minor differences in that the events take place outside of the house and the cook never actually appears.

Then there's the scene between Alice and the Cheshire Cat and Alice trying to figure out which way to go. Another difference occurs when the frog from the house of the Duchess comes out with flamingos. Then the Tweedles show up.

After that it's the scene with the Alice meeting the Queen, but there are some differences from the original story. This is followed by the croquet game scene, sort of. Then we go to the scene with Alice meeting the caterpillar. This then immediately leads into the scene of the three cards painting the roses. However it's the White Queen who first appears, the Red Queen appearing later. Also, Alice finds a gold crown, which she puts on, and a scepter.

There's talk of a party at Alice's, but then there's the trial for stealing tarts.

Then Alice wakes up back in the room she had been in with Lewis Carroll. The play ends.

I don't understand this play, why it was done the way it was. The changes from the original story were noticeable, but the order of events is somewhat confusing, why they were changed from the original story's order of events. There's nothing about the play to indicate it has anything really new to say about the story; it doesn't try to have the play relevant to today's world or anything else, which at least would gave the play some stand-out distinction from the original story itself just redone in a different order. Most odd.


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